I’ve been running out food from my kitchen, and yesterday I realized that I had the exact right amount of ingredients to make a batch of my mom’s recipe for homemade granola. It’s interesting to me- we can buy all the ingredients to make granola, make at least 2 batches if you use all the ingredients right away, and make 4x as much granola as buying from the store (for the same price). Homemade is so simple to make, takes minimal effort, and yields a great result. I also like that you get to control your flavors, salt content, ingredients, and more.

Mitch pretty much made my night when he got home (I was stealing his oven since I already cleaned mine). He came up the stairs and said “oh that’s what I smelled.” I had all the windows open, and of course my follow up was “was it a good smell or bad?” He said “oh it smells delicious!” All the toasty spices had come together to make this great granola, and you could smell it 25 yards away.

If you’re creating this recipe at home, feel free to mix the ingredients up! I threw in shredded coconut just because I had it, but you could change up the nuts, fruit, spices, and more to flavor it the way you like it.

Granola

Ingredients:

3-3 1/2 cups old fashioned oats (NO QUICK COOK OR INSTANT OATS)

1-1 1/2 cups chopped nuts (I used pecans, but you could always use walnuts, almonds, etc)

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon – 1 tablespoon cinnamon

2/3 cup honey

4 tablespoons vegetable oil (or any other neutral oil)

Chopped, dried fruit

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper. Spray lightly with cooking spray to prevent sticking if using foil

In a large bowl, combine oats, nuts, and spices. Add honey and stir well to coat. Then add the oil and stir well again.

Pour onto prepared baking sheet and spread into an even layer. Bake 30 minutes, stir, then bake another 15 minutes.

Remove from oven, add fruit, and let sit to harden. When it is firm, break into pieces and store in an airtight container.